AN INVASION OF THE NORTH INDIA AFTER
HARSHA'S DEATH
-MYNAK R. TULKU
The story of a Sino· Tibetan invasion of North India in the reign
of Arjuna. the usurper of Harsha's throne, is recently discussed by a
specialist in Chinese language and history in Visva-Bharati Annals Vol. XI.
Item No, 2 (Narayan Chandra Sen: Accouuts of India and Kashmir in the
Dynastic Histories of the T'ang Period). Since our publication of Hu-lendeb-tller. the earlier version of Deb-ther-dmar-po (The Red Annals, Namgyal
Instiute of Tibetology, 1961) is referred herein as a principal source,
I may be permittad to present in Bulletin of Tibetology certain facts from
Tibetan tradition with my reading of the relevant lines in The Red
Annals'
The earlier version of Thf? Red Annals is in archaic style and in places
the expressions are rather cryptic. The relevant words about the Sinolibetan invasion as in the print of the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology
(P 9) are
":
£!~'~~'~.~'r~ ~~·5"'11~~·cli~·t.J·.q5t::·q· ~''11'~x.:~i~·
"I~·llCJ.!·l:r q",.~ ~'ij"~'~~' ,,~::rI'q)t::'~~':N' ~.~ ·.qr~l "
A literal
translation in English may be made thus "The envoy sent to India by
T'ai Tsong was conquerd in Magadha. Having heard the (Indian) victory
Tibetans sent an army and Magadha was conquered'"
Different Tibetan versions were collected by Gedun Chhopel (Oge'dun-chhos- 'phal) the well-kuown Amdo scholar who took interest in
ancient inscriptions and old books in the manner of the modern western
scholarship. He was a well-known figure in the second quarter of fhis
(Christian) century and his Deb·ther-dkarpo or The White Annals is now
available in modern print (Tibetan Freedom Press, Oarjeeling 1964)
I give below a free translation from PP, 75-76 of this book,
"When Harsha (Tib Dga'-bo) was alive he sent a Brahman (Tib,
Bram-ze) to present gifts to the Chinese emperor.
Harsha was the
author of the drama Nagananda (Tlb. Klu-kun-tu-dga'.ba'i-zlo-gar)
which one finds in Tenjur (Bstan.'gyur). There is a Sanskrit Avadana
(fib. Rtogs·brjod) in verses which was written by Banabhatta (TibNags kyi.dpa'-bo) in India. In the 22 year of Cheng Kawn and 1192
years after the passing away of the Lord Buddha, tha (Chinese) emperor
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(rai Tsang) sant an envoy named Wang Hiuan Ts'o (Tib. Vang-hen-tse)
and thirty other horsemen were sent to India. At that time Harsha was
already dead and they witnessed the time when the country was not
in peace. Harsha having no son. the minister Arjuna (Tib. Srid.sgrub)
was on the throne and was cauiing great harm to Buddhism. (Arjuna)
conquered the (Chinese) envoy and killed most of his friends and locted
the baggages. Wang Hiuan T5'0 him3elf and few friends escaped in the
dead of nigl1t and reached Nepal, which was undar Tibet and sought
the refuge with Songtsen Gampo (Srong-btsen.Sygam-po), The Tibetan
king sent a crack regiment of 1.200 TIbetan soldiers and 7,000 Nepali
cavalry to India.
With the envoy they reached Hirahita.
In round
about three days battle they (Tibetans) captured the main capital. They
killed about 3,000 Indians and about 1.000 were thrown into the nearby
rivers. King Arjuna escaped but he brought new army and offered yet
another battle but at last he was defeatl:ld by the Tibetans and he (Arjuna)
with relations were caught alive and sent to Chinese emperor.
The
emperor was very pleased and when rai Tsang died, a statue of the Tibetan king was made in front of the tomb as a mark of remembrance for his
deeds".
I do not intend to enter into the many disputed points about this
particular Sino-Tibetan inva.sion after Harsha's death, and would only
emphasize
certain
facts firmly
handed
down
in
Tibetan
tradition. First. there were several Tibetan invasions into different
parts of Northern India in the time of Songsten Gampo and his succes·
sors; such invasions into Chian in the east and li-yul. (Eastern Turkestan) in the north are admitted by modern historians. Secondly. after
Harsha's death Buddhism not only lost its stata taatronage but was undergoing much persecution; in Eastern India Sasanka's persecution of Bud.
dhism in Bengal itself is well known; such conditions might have
invited the anger of the great Tibetan protector of Dharma (Tib. Chhosrgyal/Skt. Dharmaraja).
Thirdly, Arjuna's treatment of Chinse envoy
gave the Tibetan king an opportunity to vindicate the Dharma in Phagyul
rPhags-yul/Skt. Aryabhumi) itself as well as to prove the superiorty of
the Tibetans over the Chinese.
Two very significant facts in Gedun Chhophel's account are (i) description of the Indian region which the Tibetans invaded; and (2)
the identification of the statue in front of the Chinese emperor's
tomb. The region is called Hirahita. and Gedun Chhophel included Malia.
Sakya. Lichchavi, Vriji and Kanyakubja in Hirahita, Scholars of Sanskrit and Chinese may consider whether Hirahita can be derived from
10
Hiranyavati Ccf L. Petech: Northern India according to the Shui-ching-chu,
PP. 25-33; Rome 1950). The statue which was placed in the front
of the Chinese emperor's tomb is that ot Tibetan king and not that of
Indian king held as prisoner.
Gedun Chhophel does not say that both Songtsen Gampo the victor
and the Indian king the prisoner were commemorated in statues as some
Chinese sources, reported by the Indian Sinologist Professor Bagchi,
suggest (Sino-Indian Studies. Vol. 1, part 2. P. 69).
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